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May 22, 2019 06:29 pm PDT

The "Uber of Live Music" will charge you $1100-1600 to book a house show, pay musicians $100

Sofar Sounds is an "uber for live music" startup that just closed a $25m round of investment for its product, which books house-shows -- where musicians show up and play in your living room for you and your friends -- at $1100-$1600/each.

House shows are a staple of indie musicians and a way for people in communities to show their support for bands getting their start, but they are a labor of love that generally lose money for all concerned. How could a company like this ever be profitable enough to warrant a $25m investment?

Simple: they keep nearly all the money you pay to book the house show, paying musicians only $100. You supply the venue, the refreshments, etc, and the musicians supply the entertainment -- Sofar Sounds supplies a website and a tiny amount of administrative work.

JWZ -- who owns the DNA Lounge, one of San Francisco's best live music venues -- explains the exploitative economics of Sofar's business-model.

There are several common ways that live show contracts work. Sometimes it's just a flat fee. But for small shows with up-and-coming acts, a typical structure would be: $X guarantee (the bands get that no matter what), then if the door takes in more than $X, the house gets the rest up to $Y (to cover costs: rent, insurance, sound tech, light tech, security, cashier, manager, and oh yeah promoting the show) and anything above $Y, the bands and the house split 80/20. For a really small show, $X is probably 0.

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Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/fjai3LG4HP0/dont-pay-the-piper.html

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